How Steelcase gives back millions to West Michigan groups (Steelcase at 100)

MLive File PhotoPeople check out artwork at the Grand Rapids Art Museum during last year's Festival of the Arts. The museum is one of many groups that receives funding from the Steelcase Foundation.

GRAND RAPIDS – Back in the early days of the Steelcase Foundation, word around town was that if you sold Steelcase executive David Hunting Sr. on your organization’s need, he would slide open the top drawer of his desk and write a check on the spot.

It’s not that simple anymore but the goal is the same, says Kate Pew Wolters, the foundation’s board chairperson.

“The language that you see on our website and in our annual reports is about giving back to the communities we live in,” said Pew Wolters, a third-generation member of one the company’s founding family.

With assets of more than $80 million, foundation’s board gives away hundreds of thousands of dollars each year to charities and non-profits based mainly in West Michigan.

“The bulk of our funding has always stayed in West Michigan because this is where we got our start. We feel very strongly about giving back to the community that helped Steelcase grow. We’re giving back to those employees.”

The list of beneficiaries is varied and familiar: East Fulton Street Farmer’s Market, Blandford Nature Center, Grand Rapids Art Museum, Opera Grand Rapids, Urban Institute for Contemporary Arts, Heart of West Michigan United Way and Habitat for Humanity.

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According to the foundation’s latest financial reports, the foundation gave away nearly $3.5 million in 2010 and promised nearly $2.9 million in future grant payments. More than $400,000 were matching funds for gifts and donations made by Steelcase employees and other donors.

Pew Wolters said the annual donations are driven by the health of the endowment and the urgency of the requests they receive. The foundation has given away as much as $8 million in a year, she said. It also suspended grants for a few months when the stock market went into a tailspin.

Despite its name and the fact that it operates in donated space at corporate headquarters, the Steelcase Foundation operates independently from the company, Pew Wolters said.

The foundation receives an annual endowment from the company, usually based on the company’s annual results. That money is then invested outside of the company and the income is used to fund its grants, she said.

Unlike Hunting’s top desk drawer, getting donations from the foundation today involves a rigorous vetting process that results in each request being judged by a five-star rating system, Pew Wolters says.

“The focus of the foundation may not have changed, but it’s become more professional, it’s become more rigorous,” says Pew Wolters, who has chaired the board for the past 15 years and served as its executive director for 10 years before that.

“There are far more organizations that are in need than in the early 50s and I hope we’ve done a better job of maintaining some objectivity and making sure we ask the right questions.”